


Russian Nesting Dolls

by summer_of_1985



Series: You are the fond object of my affection and my desire [18]
Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Anne knows who her parents are, Cole had been to Russia, F/M, Russian Nesting Dolls, i did this instead of uni work..., slight canon divergent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26249776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summer_of_1985/pseuds/summer_of_1985
Summary: After a trip to Russia, Cole brings Anne a gift back.
Relationships: Cole Mackenzie & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Series: You are the fond object of my affection and my desire [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1611820
Kudos: 25





	Russian Nesting Dolls

Cole had been on a trip to Russia with Aunt Josephine at the same time that Gilbert and been on a year-long trip to see some part of the world after his dad passed.

He arrived at his former schoolhouse, walking in seeing Anne and Gilbert perched on separate tables - Anne was about to stand and explain her family history (which she had discovered thanks to Cole before he left for Russia).

"Oh my God! Look at you, a right Dandy. Beau Brummell would be proud," Anne says, smiling as Cole walks over to them, with echoes of similar exclamations. Cole put some sort of wooden egg shape that could stand up on its own.

Everyone looked confused at the painted egg. "What is it?" Anne asked, her red braids falling in front of her shoulders, parts starting to unravel with time - framing her face. She had to pick it up with both hands, with it having some considerable weight despite it being a wooden structure.

"A matryoshka," Cole tells her, pulling eyes away from the object in front of her to look up at one of her dearest friends.

"What did you just call me?" She asks him, with a raised eyebrow, assuming that the Russian word Cole just spoke to her was some kind of insult.

Josie Pye let out a snigger. "Would have thought you would know what it is, considering how smart you claim to be," Josie always took sly (or not even that sly, but just downright rude) comments thrown Anne's way.

"If I was that smart, I wouldn't be here with you," Anne shoots back, as Cole takes the object from her hands and starts pulling it apart. "Stop it! You're going to break it!" She exclaims, reaching her hands over to claim her gift back from Cole, as he finally got it apart revealing a similar-looking underneath, a little bit smaller than the one resting in his palms.

Gilbert had wandered over intrigued by Anne's gift. As was the majority of the class (save for Billy and Josie, in her moments). Cole handed the opened Russian object back to its owner - the outer layer in his hands. Gilbert felt like the little pocket dictionary would fail dramatically if compared to this matryoshka.

"It's what we would call a babushka doll," Cole explained, as recognition over its English name was noticed. Ruby was still confused.

"It's a nesting doll," Moody tells her, leaning over her slightly to gets better look at Anne's doll. Ruby looked up at Moody as a slight red blush rose up to her cheeks. Gilbert would never be this close to her, wanting to be superglued to Anne (anyone could tell since arriving back in Avonlea, that he had a massive crush on the red-head) when she allowed him. Josie refused to think that Gilbert liked the little orphan, waiting for him to 'notice' Ruby.

Anne wiggled the next lid off the nesting doll in her head, which came off with a bit of protest - with it either being new or due to the sudden heat of Prince Edward Island. Revealing another nesting doll underneath. Gilbert holds his hands out and takes the halves from the object of his affections.

"I love it!" She smiles happily, taking a few more layers of her Russian Nesting Doll, Gilbert having turned the halves over in his hands to take the next few layers from her.

Then she opened the final layer and released the core piece of the nesting doll, a little baby with red hair looking back at her. Anne could see the slight brush strokes under the glossy coat. It would have looked like baby Anne, Anne desperately wished to see a photo of herself as a baby with her parents.

“Thank you, Cole,” she reaches over and hugs him, the little wooden redhead baby clutched tights in her grasp.

Gilbert had only been able to see it for a split second before Anne tightened her fist around the little object and hugged her friend. The red hair and freckles obviously represented Anne, the little defenceless baby she once was (possibly crying for her parents that weren’t there). It broke Gilbert’s heart over what Anne had to struggle and fight through to get to where she was, full of hope and love to give - maybe one day he would be worthy of her love. One day when he was a full-fledged doctor, she would see that he had always been standing there, waiting for her to see him.

One day, it would come - but he had to get through these days of heartache and misery (dreaming of the day she would simply take his arm and promise to be his). Every day that ended was another day closer, was another day of heartache.

Little did he know, Diana was begging to anyone or everyone in the sky to get Anne to realise her feelings for him. Everyone except the redhead could see how much she means to him.

One day more.


End file.
